Publishing and Books on Politics

Just when you start feeling sad that another political season has passed and there’s nothing you can obsess over anymore, another one appears on the horizon. Each year, much like Christmas, the political season starts earlier than the last. It could also be argued that, like Christmas, an unthinkable amount of money is at stake. The national and local economies are flooded or deprived on economic impact from the seasons of politics and holidays alike.

In this update, we’ll look at whether or not book sales from each party show an influences on the upcoming presidential election. Book sales used to be telling of the party in favor. Not to bring up yet another holiday, but remember the sales of Halloween masks? Historically, the candidate who’s mask sold more is to be the victor in the election. Though this primitive system has proven very accurate, we’ll stick to book sales. Year after year, republicans crank out so many top sellers, you’d think the party had issued some sort of book template in their handbook.

What do we have?

At the top of Amazon’s bestselling books in politics in Glen Beck’s Dreamers and Deceivers: True Stories of the Heroes and Villains Who Made America.

It’s hard to say anymore if his book sales are a reflection of the country’s feelings and tendencies or whether he has developed and loyal brand following with the help of his syndicated radio station. Opponents will argue that democrats write loads of books as well that don’t sell with nearly the same popularity. The problem with this argument is that very few democrats have a radio show from which to promote their books. That may be for lack of demand. It may also be for lack of any daytime talk radio stations that aren’t right-wing owned.

Can a democrats’ books sell at the same level? Let’s look at it.

A quick glance at Amazon’s top sellers in politics categories says that republicans sell far more books than do democrats. And the republicans just took the Senate….

The next book we’ll review from the first Obama election year is What You Should Know About Politics…But Don’t: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues. It’s by Jessamyn Conrad and works with the well worn, but true slogan of it’s time: this is an exciting period in American politics.

No one could argue that. We had the first non-white president elected in US history, accompanied by record book sales for living president. Not just books about him, but books about his wife and family. Good and bad. All the angels sold well. It was incredible.

Again, I can’t help but point out the red, white and blue book cover. This one is quite plain and boring and could have used some creative input. If you’re a book cover maker, please get in touch with these political book publishers and offer them a decent book cover design before the next election!

This book attempted to break through the political spin so often found in other books of the genre and tell the straight story about how each of the parties stood on major issues like the economy, Iraq, and health care. It was designed to help people brush up on the subjects and be truly informed about the issues.

Now, every published book on politics claims to be unbiased and a reliable source of the “real” truth in American politics, so it’s hard to take the claims of this book too seriously.

The book reminds us that polls show that the public’s interest in a presidential campaign usually peaks 3-6 weeks before the election takes place. I imagine this book was well timed for sales and marketing promotion at that time and will be again for 2016, as many of the topics will remain relevant.

While we wait for the next election, we’ll review some of the top selling books about politics that happened during the 2008 election season.

The top book that comes up in an Amazon search results is The Politics of Freedom: Taking on the Left, The Right and Threats to Our Liberties by David Boaz. A partial image of the book cover is shown on the left. For some reason Amazon is making it more difficult to use images of their book covers taken right from the product page.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pull this up is a typical and expected political book cover with red, white and blue as the only colors and a peek a boo image of the American flag. I have to say, it’s one of the more cool book covers of this nature I’ve seen in a while.

The font and typeface hold a little more interest than what you find on a lot of these book covers, so I have to give them credit for that .

The book is published by the Cato Institute which, as you probably know, is a libertarian think tank based in Washington DC. Their aims are “individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peaceful international relations.”

According to the book description, the book is targeting both Democrats and Republicans that no longer feel they fit into a red or blue category due to out of control spending and increased reach of government power from both parties.

What’s interesting to me is that this book is the first one up on the list when you use an advanced search for “politics” during the year “2008”. It looks like those targeted party books are no longer on the bestseller list.

We’re still waiting for many books to come out and grace us with a flood of political slander, gossip and campaign material. I will I had a huge list of books I could put up for you today, but it’s a little early still.

Right now, it’s all speculation about who will run. Self-publishers are waiting to write their books and traditional publishing houses are holding off until they know, at the very least, who will be running in the primary campaigns. Once it’s established, expect the bestseller lists to top out with a variety of books from every angle.

In the 2008 election, we saw record sales for books about the Obamas. Everything from speech collection of either Michelle or Barack to their lives in the white house. We can only hope to have another candidate, either Republican or Democrat who can spur enthusiasm again for that kind of book sales. It’s good for Amazon, it’s good for self-published writers, and it’s good for the published bloggers.

Really, no one gets hurt. Oh wait. What about all the slander and bad-mouthing and attacking of families. So I guess people do get hurt. Or are they resilient as politicians have to be?

Check back frequently for the newest books

As the 2016 election approaches, we're looking for a myriad of new books to be published in the next 12 months. It will be very interesting to see how publishers make the old rhetoric new again. I expect to see some of the same styles in book cover design that demonize the opponents and glorify the supported candidate.
Three predictions:
1. More self-published books on politics
2. A continuation of mysterious bestselling books that can't be explained
3. Political faces all over the book shelves and covers.